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Today, robots help us more than ever in all major operations, everyday life and become a daily reality, making it an integral part of major human projects. If they are still the majority in the machine industry, they will soon become as many in other industries and at the same time will grow strongly for human support in conquering extraterrestrial space in an extended campaign robot will have a role. We already have orbital space stations with robots, followed by others in the form of colonies on the Moon and on Mars and then a continuous expansion. At the same time, the expansion of scientific research and robot exploration, which has already exceeded the limits of our solar system, but unfortunately the power of the fission power fission, does not allow the probe to have greater autonomy at this time, which is imperative plus the development of robotic and automated systems to create new spatial energy sources. Opportunity (known as MER-B) or MER-1, called Oppy, is a robotic engine fueled from 2004 until the end of 2018. At NASA, Mars Exploration Rover landed at Meridiani Planum on January 25, 2009, ceased to communicate in 2010, while Opportunity managed to remain operational for an area of 5111 meters after landing, recharging solar batteries and hibernation storms. This careful operation allowed Opportunity to exceed its operating plan by 14 years, 46 days (during the Earth), 55 times the projected lifespan. Until June 10, 2018, when he first contacted NASA, Rover traveled at a distance of 45.16 km. The most important missions included the initial 90-mile mission, finding extramarital meteorites such as the Rock of Heat Shield and over two years exploring and studying Crater Victoria. Rover survived the moderate dust storms and in 2011 reached the Endeavor crater, which was described as the "second place to land." The Opportunity mission is considered one of NASA's most successful adventures. Curiosity is a small machine designed to explore the Mars Gale Crater within the NASA mission, Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). Curiosity was launched from Cape Canaveral on November 26, 2011, at 15:02 UTC and landed on Aeolis Palus in Gale on Mars on August 6, 2012, at 5:17 UTC. The Bradbury Landing Point was less than 2.4 km (1.5 mi) from the rover's target center after a 560-million-mile journey. The objectives of the rover include an investigation into Martian climate and geology; assessing whether the site selected in Gale has ever provided environmentally friendly environmental conditions for microbial life, including investigating the role of water; and studies on planetary habitats in preparation for human exploration.

The first days after landing were spent commissioning parts of Curiosity, but a number of pictures were taken and some science was done. This image from Bradbury Landing was taken on sol 2 from the left Navcam camera (see Fig. 4.1).

When do you get to the bottom of a mountain? The top of a mountain is clearly marked—the peak. One answer is you get to the terrain that is similar to that on the mountain but distinctly different from the surrounding plain. In the case of Mount Sharp (Mons Aeolis) the bottom is the intersection of the crater floor (Aeolis Palus) with the upward slope and foothills of Mount Sharp. Curiosity reached Mount Sharp on September 14, 2014, on sol 751 (751 Martian days after touchdown at Bradbury Landing). The way stop is named Piute, in the Amargosa Valley.

The Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity rover) Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) experiment detects neutrons for the purpose of searching for hydrogen in the shallow subsurface of Mars. DAN has two modes of operation, active and passive. In passive mode, the instrument detects neutrons produced by Galactic Cosmic Ray interactions in the atmosphere and regolith and by the rover's Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator. DAN passive data from Yellowknife Bay to Amargosa Valley (sols 201 through 753) are presented and analyzed here. Water equivalent hydrogen (WEH) estimates from this portion of Curiosity's traverse range from 0.0 wt. % up to 15.3 wt. %. Typical uncertainties on these WEH estimates are ∼0.5 wt. % but in some cases can be as high as ∼4.0 wt. % depending on the specific circumstances of a given measurement. Here we also present a new way of reporting results from the passive mode of the experiment, the DAN passive geochemical index (DPGI). This index is sensitive to some key geochemical variations, but it does not require assumptions about the abundances of high thermal neutron absorption cross section elements, which are needed to estimate WEH. DPGI variations in this section of the traverse indicate that the shallow regolith composition is changing on both the local (∼meters) and regional (∼100 s of meters) scales. This variability is thought to be representative of the diverse composition of source regions for sediments within the crater floor. Kolmogorov-Smirnov Tests on the populations of WEH estimates and DPGI values demonstrate there are statistically significant differences between nearly all of the geologic units investigated along the rover's traverse. We also present updated previous DAN passive results from Bradbury Landing to John Klein that make use of revised DAN active mode results for calibration, however, no qualitative changes in the interpretations made in Tate et al. (2015b) are incurred.

The Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) experiment on the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover Curiosity is designed to detect neutrons to determine hydrogen abundance within the subsurface of Mars (Mitrofanov, I.G. et al. [2012]. Space Sci. Rev. 170, 559–582. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11214-012-9924-y ; Litvak, M.L. et al. [2008]. Astrobiology 8, 605–613. http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/ast.2007.0157 ). While DAN has a pulsed neutron generator for active measurements, in passive mode it only measures the leakage spectrum of neutrons produced by the Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG) and Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCR). DAN passive measurements provide better spatial coverage than the active measurements because they can be acquired while the rover is moving. Here we compare DAN passive-mode data to models of the instrument’s response to compositional differences in a homogeneous regolith in order to estimate the water equivalent hydrogen (WEH) content along the first 200 sols of Curiosity’s traverse in Gale Crater, Mars. WEH content is shown to vary greatly along the traverse. These estimates range from 0.5 ± 0.1 wt.% to 3.9 ± 0.2 wt.% for fixed locations (usually overnight stops) investigated by the rover and 0.6 ± 0.2 wt.% to 7.6 ± 1.3 wt.% for areas that the rover has traversed while continuously acquiring DAN passive data between fixed locations. Estimates of WEH abundances at fixed locations based on passive mode data are in broad agreement with those estimated at the same locations using active mode data. Localized (meter-scale) anomalies in estimated WEH values from traverse measurements have no particular surface expression observable in co-located images. However at a much larger scale, the hummocky plains and bedded fractured units are shown to be distinct compositional units based on the hydrogen content derived from DAN passive measurements. DAN passive WEH estimates are also shown to be consistent with geologic models inferred from other MSL instruments, which indicate that fluvial/lacustrine activity occurred at certain locations ( e.g. , Yellowknife Bay).

© 2015 by Walter de Gruyter. The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover Curiosity has documented a section of fluvio-lacustrine strata at Yellowknife Bay (YKB), an embayment on the floor of Gale crater, approximately 500 m east of the Bradbury landing site. X-ray diffraction (XRD) data and evolved gas analysis (EGA) data from the CheMin and SAM instruments show that two powdered mudstone samples (named John Klein and Cumberland) drilled from the Sheepbed member of this succession contain up to ∼20 wt% clay minerals. A trioctahedral smectite, likely a ferrian saponite, is the only clay mineral phase detected in these samples. Smectites of the two samples exhibit different 001 spacing under the low partial pressures of H2O inside the CheMin instrument (relative humidity 2+ in olivine to Fe3+ in magnetite, and perhaps in smectites provided a potential energy source for organisms.

We describe preliminary results from the first 100 sols of ground temperature measurements along the Mars Science Laboratory's traverse from Bradbury Landing to Rocknest in Gale. The ground temperature data show long-term increases in mean temperature that are consistent with seasonal evolution. Deviations from expected temperature trends within the diurnal cycle are observed and may be attributed to rover and environmental effects. Fits to measured diurnal temperature amplitudes using a thermal model suggest that the observed surfaces have thermal inertias in the range of 265–375 J m−2 K−1 s−1/2, which are within the range of values determined from orbital measurements and are consistent with the inertias predicted from the observed particle sizes on the uppermost surface near the rover. Ground temperatures at Gale Crater appear to warm earlier and cool later than predicted by the model, suggesting that there are multiple unaccounted for physical conditions or processes in our models. Where the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) descent engines removed a mobile layer of dust and fine sediments from over rockier material, the diurnal temperature profile is closer to that expected for a homogeneous surface, suggesting that the mobile materials on the uppermost surface may be partially responsible for the mismatch between observed temperatures and those predicted for materials having a single thermal inertia. Models of local stratigraphy also implicate thermophysical heterogeneity at the uppermost surface as a potential contributor to the observed diurnal temperature cycle.

The ChemCam instrument package on the Mars rover, Curiosity, provides new capabilities to probe the abundances of certain trace elements in the rocks and soils on Mars using the laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy technique. We focus on detecting and quantifying Li, Ba, Rb, and Sr in targets analyzed during the first 100 sols, from Bradbury Landing Site to Rocknest. Univariate peak area models and multivariate partial least squares models are presented. Li, detected for the first time directly on Mars, is generally low ( 100 ppm and >1000 ppm, respectively. These analysis locations tend to have high Si and alkali abundances, consistent with a feldspar composition. Together, these trace element observations provide possible evidence of magma differentiation and aqueous alteration.

[1] We have assessed the characteristics of clasts along Curiosity's traverse to shed light on the processes important in the genesis, modification, and transportation of surface materials. Pebble- to cobble-sized clasts at Bradbury Landing, and subsequently along Curiosity's traverse to Yellowknife Bay, reflect a mixing of two end-member transport mechanisms. The general clast population likely represents material deposited via impact processes, including meteorite fragments, ejecta from distant craters, and impactites consisting of shocked and shock-melted materials from within Gale Crater, which resulted predominantly in larger, angular clasts. A subset of rounded pebble-sized clasts has likely been modified by intermittent alluvial or fluvial processes. The morphology of this rounded clast population indicates that water was a more important transporting agent here than at other Mars sites that have been studied in situ. Finally, we identified populations of basalt clasts and porphyritic clasts of undetermined composition by their morphologic and textural characteristics; basalts are confirmed by geochemical data provided by ChemCam.

International audience; Ventifacts, rocks abraded by wind-borne particles, are found in Gale Crater, Mars. In the eastwarddrive from “Bradbury Landing” to “Rocknest,” they account for about half of the float and outcrop seen byCuriosity’s cameras. Many are faceted and exhibit abrasion textures found at a range of scales, fromsubmillimeter lineations to centimeter-scale facets, scallops, flutes, and grooves. The drive path geometryin the first 100 sols of the mission emphasized the identification of abrasion facets and textures formedby westerly flow. This upwind direction is inconsistent with predictions based on models and the orientationof regional dunes, suggesting that these ventifact features formed from very rare high-speed winds. Theabsence of active sand and evidence for deflation in the area indicates that most of the ventifacts are fossilfeatures experiencing little abrasion today.

The Mars Science Laboratory mission reached Bradbury Landing in August 2012. In its first 500 sols, the rover Curiosity was commissioned and began its investigation of the habitability of past and present environments within Gale Crater. Curiosity traversed eastward toward Glenelg, investigating a boulder with a highly alkaline basaltic composition, encountering numerous exposures of outcropping pebble conglomerate, and sampling aeolian sediment at Rocknest and lacustrine mudstones at Yellowknife Bay. On sol 324, the mission turned its focus southwest, beginning a year-long journey to the lower reaches of Mt. Sharp, with brief stops at the Darwin and Cooperstown waypoints. The unprecedented complexity of the rover and payload systems posed challenges to science operations, as did a number of anomalies. Operational processes were revised to include additional opportunities for advance planning by the science and engineering teams.